Lost Love Found Love Chap 6!
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The team is having trouble adjusting to the new McGee. Gibbs seems to be having a harder time adjusting than the rest. Enjoy!
Disclaimer 1: I rarely, if ever, write cannon. I write how the story takes me.
Disclaimer 2: I don't own NCIS or any of their characters. In other words, I Own Nothing.
Chapter 6: Think Before You Speak Gibbs
The next morning following the ass chewing Gibbs received from Ducky finds the new routine for Tim and Ziva repeating itself. They are the first ones in. They sat their coffee on their respective desks and then go through their normal opening routine. Ziva goes around turning on lights and peripheral equipment while Tim goes over to the cold case file cabinet, unlocks it and takes out 20 cases. He places the 10 cases that Ziva is working with on her desk and takes the other 10 that he is working on over to his desk. Without saying a word, they get down to work.
About 2 hours later, Gibbs is the next one in. The agents speak and continue on with their work. About 30 minutes later, Dinozzo comes in. The agents again speak and continue on with their work. Tony goes and gets a couple of cold case files but does not open any. He just sits at his desk staring at McGee. He looks over at Gibbs and see's he is also staring at McGee. Tim can feel them staring and just ignores them as he lets himself get absorbed in his cases.
Three hours later McGee opens his sixth cold case file. He scans the general information and gets up out of his seat and walks over to Gibbs desk. As Gibbs looks up, Tim hands him the case file and points to Gibbs name as the investigating agent for that case. Gibbs scans the file and remembers the case.
"Keep me updated" he orders as he hands it back to McGee with a nod. Tim takes the case file and goes back to his desk and dives into the file looking for any clues that might have been missed.
1 hour later Ziva opens her fifth cold case file and scans the general information. She gets up and mimics' McGee earlier actions. She goes over to Gibbs desk and hands him the case file and points to his name as the investigating agent. Gibbs scans the file and remembers this case also.
"Keep me updated" he orders as he hands Ziva the case file. Ziva takes the case file and goes back to her desk and opens the file to start trying to find clues other might have missed.
A short while later the elevator pings and Jimmy comes out. "Hey Tim you ready to go?"
Tim looks up at Jimmy and then looks over at the clock to see what time it is.
"I'm sorry Jimmy, I totally lost track of time. Just give me a second and I'll be ready to go. Are Breena and William here?" McGee asks with a big smile on his face. Seeing Jimmy and Breena's son, who just happens to be his Godson, always put's Tim in a great mood.
"Yep, they're downstairs waiting for us but Ducky has put a time limit on you and William. He says you have a habit of hogging William all to yourself when you get him." Jimmy replies laughing.
"Hey, a Godfather has rights you know. Besides, Ducky gets to see him a lot more than I do so I have to make all my time count when I can. Ok, I'm ready, let's go." Tim says. He then announces to the room at large that he is going to lunch. As Tim and Jimmy get on the elevator, the rest of the team can hear them talking about how big William has gotten.
After they leave, Ziva has a smile on her face as she goes back to her cold case. She likes seeing Tim like this. She has been with McGee a couple of times when he babysits his Godson and she could feel the unbridled love Tim has for William. It's also easy to see that the toddler loves hanging out with his Godfather. They always have a great time together. She thinks Jimmy and Breena made an excellent choice when they chose Tim to be their baby's Godfather. She feels eyes on her and looks up to find both Gibbs and Tony staring at her.
"Why are you staring at me," she asks defensively.
"Something is going on with Probie but he won't talk to Boss, me or Abby. Besides Ducky and Jimmy, you are the only one from the team that he talks to. No one is brave enough to ask Ducky anything after yesterday and Jimmy just clams up whenever we try to get something out of him. That just leaves you to let us know what the hell is going on. I'm tired of walking around here on eggshells and I'm tired of being ignored. So what's up with Probie, Ziva?" Tony demands.
"All I know is what I have seen. I have seen Gibbs treat McGee like the stepdaughter in the Cinderella animation. I have seen you tease, prank, disparage and demean McGee. I have seen Abby use and abuse her power over him because of his feelings for her. These are only the things that I have seen. I do not know if this is why he is ignoring you. McGee has not spoken to me about anything that has to do with any of you and if he had, I still would not betray his confidence and speak to you about it. I am not the one you need to speak to about this. What I do know is I will not speak to any of you behind McGee's back. I will always be truthful with him. He considers me a friend and I cherish that. I will not do anything to jeopardize losing his friendship. I am going to lunch now." Ziva stated. As she was leaving she suddenly stopped and turned back. "Dinozzo, I have no idea why you would walk on eggshells. Is this an American custom to gain wisdom?" Ziva asks with a puzzle look on her face.
With a smirk on his face, Tony responds. "Go to lunch Ziva."
After Ziva leaves, Tony looks over at Gibbs and asks, "Do you think that's what it is Boss?"
After giving it some thought Gibbs answers "I don't think so Dinozzo."
"Yeah, I didn't think so either. I know what Ziva said is true but Probie was always able to put that behind him. Something else had to have happened but I can't think of anything that any of us has done that what get this type of reaction from him. He knows we work well together and doesn't want to interfere with that which is probably why he hasn't asked for a transfer but other than that, he wants absolutely nothing to do with us." Tony states sadly.
Gibbs thoughts were alone the same line as Dinozzo's. He was no closer to finding an answer than Dinozzo was. What he did know was that Abby was miserable not being able to talk to McGee. Tony was having trouble focusing on the job since his main focus seemed to be finding out what was wrong with McGee. And he didn't even want to think about the fool he had made out of himself. Ducky had let him have it and rightly so. The thing that really irked Gibbs was McGee wasn't doing anything wrong. If you really thought about it, McGee was just living his life the way he wanted to like the rest of them were doing. He just chose not to share his personal life with them which is his right. It's not his fault if his teammates can't handle that. They just never realized how much a part of their personal lives McGee was until he wasn't available to them anymore.
Ziva beat Tim back to the bullpen from lunch. The elevator pinged and Tim stepped out holding a toddler with Jimmy and Breena right behind him. Tim is lifting the toddler over his head and he squeals every time Tim does this. Tim finally pulls the toddler to his chest and cuddles him. The toddler pats Tim on his cheeks and says "Unca." Tim is grinning from ear to ear as Breena steps in to take her son so Tim can get to work. Breena pulls Tim head down and whispers something evil about his teammates in his ear before kissing him on his cheek. Tim let's out a loud belly laugh that is heard throughout the bullpen. William, seeing his Godfather laughing, starts laughing himself which sets off Breena and Jimmy. The team is shocked as they haven't heard McGee laugh in a long time.
"Jimmy, get your wife out of here before she starts an international incident." Tim states still laughing.
Also laughing, Jimmy ushers his wife and son out of the bullpen. After they leave, Tim ignores the stares he is getting and walks over to his desk and is instantly absorbed in his cold cases. Tony looks from Tim to Gibbs with a pleading look in his eyes. Gibbs, who was also starring at McGee, finally looks over at Tony and nods his head to Tony's cold cases basically telling him to get back to work. Tony frowns but picks up whatever case is on top and opens it but he can't concentrate on anything he is reading. He lets out a loud sigh that has Gibbs, McGee and Ziva looking at him. He looks back at them and starts grinning.
"Hey guys, let's go for drinks after work today?" Tony asks.
"No thank you" Ziva responds. "I already have plans."
Neither Gibbs or McGee reply's. Tim doesn't even look up. He just keeps typing on his keyboard.
"Hey Probie, what about you? You up for some drinks after work? Tony asks.
Tim ignores him and keeps typing.
Gibbs is getting a little irritated with McGee. He doesn't like prima donna's and he thinks that is exactly what McGee is acting like. If he doesn't want to associate with them fine, but he would not stand for being rude and ignoring his co-workers.
"McGee!"
Tim looks over at Gibbs, "Yeah boss?"
"I know you heard Dinozzo ask you a question? Why are you ignoring him? Are you so high and mighty now that you don't observe common courtesy anymore?"
Tim looked at Gibbs with and angry scowl on his face before schooling his features and answering him.
"You, who have never shown common courtesy to anyone, have the nerve to actually sit there and try to speak to me about common courtesy. You, who barges into the Director's office like it's your home instead of the professional office of the Director of NCIS, want to speak about common courtesy? You, who never saw anything wrong with Dinozzo breaking into my apartment and rifling through my personal belongings want to speak about common courtesy. First of all you and Dinozzo know nothing about common courtesy, so you should be the last ones to ever try to take someone to task for it or lack of it. Second, I made myself perfectly clear about my personal life when it comes to associating with certain individuals. Tell me Boss, when did having a drink after work become a part of NCIS work requirements? As I understand it, that is a socializing event and I made it perfectly clear to the three of you that I don't want to socialize with you on my own personal time. If Dinozzo is too much of an idiot to understand this and chooses to ignore what I have stated it is not my fault or concern. I don't need to and won't answer a question that shouldn't have been asked. As I said before, you and Dinozzo are the last two people who should try to call someone out on common courtesy. You two probably don't even realize that what common courtesy would have been was for Dinozzo to respect my wishes and not ask me about associating with him outside of work. And last, while we are speaking of common courtesy, why don't you ask Dinozzo why he thinks he is so high and mighty that he could blatantly disregard my wishes and ask me that question when I made it perfectly clear I wanted nothing to do with him on a personal level?" For some reason, you were quick to jump down my throat when you thought I had violated some type of common courtesy boss so let me know when you have jumped on Dinozzo for actually doing what you accused me of." Tim stated and then turned back to his computer and continued to work.
Gibbs, Dinozzo and Ziva could hear snickering coming from the other side of the bull pen. Gibbs was furious and embarrassed. Once again, he was made to look like an idiot. McGee had done this without raising his voice. McGee had simply stated facts and asked a question that was in direct correlation to the question he asked him. Gibbs was so frustrated he could scream.
"I'm going for coffee" Gibbs stated but before he could leave Tim stopped him in his tracks.
"What Boss? You don't have anything to say to Dinozzo before you leave? What a surprise." Tim said sarcastically before once again turning back to his computer.
Gibbs stood there glaring at the back of McGee's head as more snickering could be heard from the other side of the bull pen. Gibbs finally turned and left the bull pen. After Gibbs had left the three agents could hear some comments coming from the other side of the bull pen.
"Way to go Tim. That jar head needs to learn common courtesy himself."
"Nice one McGee. Very eloquent"
"Hey Tim, I want you to write all my hallmark cards."
The last one got the whole bull pen cracking up. Ziva had a hand over her mouth trying to control her laughter. Tim kept his face hidden in front of his computer screen but if you looked at his cheeks from the side you could tell he had a big grin on his face. Tony of course, wasn't laughing since he was part of the joke. Tony was sitting at his desk not knowing how he felt. He was just trying to make things right by having drinks after work and he had actually made them worse. Well, actually Gibbs had made things worse but that was splitting hairs. How could he fix anything if Tim wouldn't talk to him? Short of tying McGee up there was no way he could get him to talk to him. Hell, even boss couldn't get McGee to talk to him. What the hell could be so bad that Probie would just stop associating with them? There was only one thing he could think of but he knew that wasn't it. No one knew about that. It had to be something else but for the life of him he couldn't think of what it was. Well, things couldn't go on like this. Something would have to give. There was no way he could work like this. Probie was just going to have to come down off his pedestal and start associating with them again.
Ziva was sneaking quick peeks at McGee. She was worried about him. He would not tell her what had happened to make him not want to associate with certain team members. She did not like the stress he was under. She could see it in the way his shoulders were hunched. She would have to think of a way she could help him. He might not want her help but they were together now and his problems were her problems. She would find a way to help.
"Ziva?" Tim called.
"Ziva looked up "yes Tim."
"Could you come and take a look at this please." Tim requested.
"Of course" she answered as she got up and went to his desk.
Tony watched enviously as McGee and Ziva discussed the cold case he was working on. He was so engrossed in watching them work that he missed hearing his name the first time it was called.
"Tony" McGee called again.
"Huh, uh yeah McGee" he answered.
"Could you come take a look at this please" Tim requested.
Tony was shocked at first and didn't move. Then he jumped up and scrambled over to McGee's desk where both Tim and Ziva brought him up to date on what they had so far. They started off awkwardly but by the time they were fully engaged they were working like they always had before. The chemistry they had developed over years of working together snapped back into place as though it had never left.
Gibbs came back into the edge of the bull pen and stopped in shock. The three agents had moved over to the plasma and were discussing the case. They were rapidly throwing scenarios, conclusions and possibilities back and forth at each other while dissecting the case. Gibbs just stood and watched his team function like the team he knew them to be. Maybe things would get back to normal now that they were working like they used to. He saw them come to a conclusion and Tim thank Tony and Ziva for their help before collecting the files and notes and heading up to the director's office. Why was he heading up to the Director's office when I explicitly told him everything comes through me first? What was McGee playing at? He didn't know what was going on with McGee but there was no way he was going to put up with McGee blatantly ignoring his orders. Gibbs must have made a noise because Tony looked up and saw him standing there. He took one look at Gibbs face and knew what was about to happen. He tried to signal Gibbs to let him know it was ok. Gibbs either didn't get the signal or ignored it. Tony opened his mouth to try to stop the train wreck that was about to happen but wasn't quite quick enough.
"McGee, do you think this is some sort of a game?" Gibbs started. "I know I gave you explicit instructions that everything was to go through me first. Do you really think you are above being suspended for insubordination? I don't know what's going on inside your head but you will obey my instructions or you won't be working here at all. Are we clear?" Gibbs bellowed.
Already half way up the stairs, McGee had stopped when Gibbs had called his name but he had not turned around. McGee was fighting to get control of his emotions. His anger was so great that he was physically shaking trying to regain control. He stayed as he was for a couple of minutes before he was able to regain control and compose himself. He then turned and even though he had composed his facial features into a calm mask his eyes were blazing.
"Yeah Gibbs, you are crystal clear and if I remember correctly, you wanted to know every case I worked on that had your name on it. Since there are no official written rules on this I took that to mean it was one of NCIS unwritten rules that applied to all agents. With that in mind, I was not going to the directors' office to update him on this case but to give him the same common courtesy that you yourself demanded. This case is not one of yours but it is an old case that the director was the investigating agent on. Not only would I be giving him the common courtesy of notifying him that I was working on one of his cold cases but he might possibly be able to give me some pertinent information that might help in solving the case. I was in the process of using all the tools available to me to try to solve this case as a trained investigator is supposed to do. In this case, the director is one of those tools as he has direct knowledge into the case. Am I to now understand that you have a problem with me using the tools and techniques that you yourself taught me on how to investigate and solve cases?" McGee calmly stated.
Gibbs stood where he was in shock. He had done it again. He had jumped to conclusions like an idiot and it had bit him in the ass again. He looked over at Dinozzo who shrugged his shoulders as though to say I tried to warn you. He looked at Ziva whose eyes were blazing just as fiercely as McGee's were. The only difference was she was not trying to mask the anger on her face. Unfortunately for Gibbs, Ducky had come out of a conference room with another team that he was helping with a case just as Gibbs had started his shouting at McGee. The look on Ducky's face did not bode well for Gibbs. Gibbs didn't think things could get any worse until he looked back up at McGee and saw the director standing up by his assistant's desk staring daggers down at Gibbs. Yep, he stuck his foot in it this time. Why did he keep jumping to these wrong conclusions about McGee? He knows McGee. He knows McGee goes by the rules. He knows McGee obeys orders. Why couldn't he get his head on straight when it came to McGee? Looking back into McGee's blazing eyes Gibbs quietly stated "Proceed" before once again leaving the bull pen. McGee continued up the stairs to see the director while Tony and Ziva went to their respective desks with different thoughts going through their heads. Tony was thinking he finally had a breakthrough with the way they worked as a team again. Now he didn't know if Gibbs had just ruined that. Ziva's anger had not dissipated at all. It's a good thing Gibbs left because she didn't know if she would be able to resist breaking a couple of his bones.
Gibbs came back to the bull pen a while later with a fresh cup of coffee and sat at his desk. He looked over at Dinozzo who had a disappointed look on his face. He understood that look completely. Dinozzo was finally talking to his Probie in a meaningful way and he had ruined that. He looked at Ziva and wish he hadn't. The ex assassin looked like she wanted to go back to her old ways and make Gibbs the first target on her list. They all looked up as the director's door opened and McGee walked out. He walked down the stairs and asked Tony and Ziva to come over to his desk. The director had indeed given him a few more tidbits to add to the case. After they discussed the case some more with the added information, McGee put it on the Plasma and called Gibbs over. The three special agents took turns briefing Gibbs as they always had. Once Gibbs was fully briefed he started giving orders.
"That's good work. Tony, Ziva go pick him up. McGee put a bolo out on his car, boat and any other type of vehicle he owns and see if they have lo jack or some type of tracking system in them."
Before Gibbs could finish, McGee interrupted him.
"Boss, if I may. Ziva and I will go pick him up and Tony can handle the bolos and tracking devices." Tim stated quietly.
Gibbs was getting ready to blow his top again when he took a good look at his young agent. McGee's stance wasn't an aggressive stance. His voice wasn't belligerent. There was no bravado in his voice. No, he wasn't bucking against Gibbs. Gibbs calmed down and decided to think before he leapt this time.
"Why are you countermanding my orders McGee? Why the change?" he asked calmly.
"Rule 38 boss" McGee answered with a slight smirk.
Tony snickered and started fake coughing when Gibbs glared at him. Ziva was not even trying to hide her smile. Gibbs was having a difficult time keeping the smirk off his face and wasn't totally successful.
"Ok, you heard the man." Gibbs barked. "Go!"
Tony scrambled to his desk to start on the bolo's and tracking devices as Tim and Ziva went to their desk to get their weapons. As they headed out the door Gibbs shouted "stay in touch." Neither agent stopped walking through the door but Ziva raised her hand in a wave to let him know they had heard him as they disappeared through the door.
Gibbs watched as they disappeared through the door and allowed himself a quiet chuckle. He looked over at Dinozzo who had a big smile on his face.
"Good old rule 38 Boss." Dinozzo said with a smile.
With a slight smile on his face, Gibbs agreed with his SFA.
"Yeah Dinozzo," Gibbs agreed "good old rule 38."
For the true NCIS fans, you already know rule 38. For those of you, who are just enjoying the story and don't know what it is, shame on you! How in the world are able to enjoy a good NCIS story without knowing Gibbs Rules? That is just blasphemy! LOL.
OK, enough with the jokes. Rule 38 is 'Your Case, Your Lead'.
Since its Tim's cold case that makes him the lead so he gets to call the shots. Gibbs won't break his own rule so there's nothing Gibbs can do when McGee changes who will do what.
On one of the episodes, I don't remember which one; Ducky was the beneficiary of rule 38 as he was actually the lead on a case and got to call the shots. He enjoyed it immensely.